Japan Journey Junked...

The longer bits.

As folks who know us were aware, the Berkeley K family was looking forward to our 2+ weeks in Japan. Some of us could almost taste the Tonki tonkatsu. After the months, weeks, and days of prep, we caught our flight from SFO to LAX, the first leg to catching our JAL flight. Arriving in LAX 3 hours before the scheduled departure and got to the Tom Bradley International Terminal of the permanently under construction airport. We go to check in and run into the first issue - JAL doesn't have our booking for this flight! Argh...

I figured out what happened. Two weeks ago when looking at the flight details through American Airlines, which Marie' used to book the flights, I noticed that  she had made the reservation under "Tom Killilea", the name she's always known me as (other than Dad). Having been warned a number of times over the years, I knew that the ticketed names had to match the travel documents; my passport says Thomas Killilea. No problem, I call AA customer service, explain whats going on, and the representative changed it to the appropriate name. While we were talking, we verified that the booking on both flights looked fine. I even showed Marie' when it was done.

Last Saturday, while doing an online check-in, I got the AA flight from SFO-LAX with no problem, but the Japan leg had a weird message about not being able to display the flight. I attempted to call AA customer service but was met with an estimated 8 HOUR waiting/callback time, at which time we would be in the air to LA. We figured we'd straighten it out at LAX check in. That is where we found that, while JAL had our ticketing details, the booking for the flight was not in their system and that we'd need AA to fix it.

Fortunately, we thought, we still had 3 hours before boarding (did I mention we were early) and AA was in the terminal next door. We run over the AA customer service in Terminal 4, explained the situation, and let them work it out. They saw the issue but, according to their terminals, the JAL flight for Sunday, which we were supposed to be on, was completely full so we would need to book for the next day (Monday). What! We had them rebook it and ran back to the JAL check in to plea our case.

We found that the JAL folks were receptive and would be able to fit us on that plane. A major issue for us was that the Japanese Ministry of Health requires a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of the departure time, which, for us, ran through about 3 PM Sunday, so getting on that flight meant that would be no problem; a delay would mean having to get another test at the airport [hold that thought]. The JAL rep took our passports and was in the process of arranging for our boarding passes for Sunday. A few minutes later, one of the JAL supervisors came over to us and asked if Marie' and I had visas - huh?

This visa issue sort-of popped up the week before when Nobue heard from a couple of her Japanese colleagues at the preschool about some spouses of Japanese nationals being turned away for lack of visas. Both Nobue and I researched the issue - she on the Japanese version of the Japanese Foreign Ministry and me on the English side of the same site and the US State Department advisories. None of them had an obvious indication of a visa requirement for family visits - there was even a table on the English version of the Foreign Ministry site that seemed to indicate that there were visa requirements for all but a few countries with the US being one of the exempted countries (I say seemed, because the wording in the fine Japanese government tradition was fuzzy). We thought that since one of the spouses was French and France was not exempt from the visa requirement, we would probably be fine. Besides, there wasn't really time to get the visa and make our travel deadlines.

After much discussion with the JAL representatives, who were helpful and clearly frustrated by this stuff - it was not their first time with this issue, we had a possible work-around. If we could get the documentation to show that (a) we were all related, and (b) been registered with the Japanese authorities, we might be able to get the Japanese Immigration folks to issue a visa when we arrive at Narita. We had Marie's friend in Berkeley go and find a couple of the needed documents - our marriage license in Japanese and English and Marie's birth certificate - but a key document we needed is Nobue's family registry, a current version of which was not readily available.

Nobue called her brother in Tokamachi, their home town, where the authoritative registry is kept. Our  hope was that he would be able to visit the city office, get a copy of the registry, and get a digital copy to us; we already knew there would be no hope of obtaining it directly from the Tokamachi city office directly online, such is the nature of Japanese bureaucracy. These things still need to be done on paper with proper seals (HANKO).

Late in the afternoon, Nobue talked to her brother and he was set to make his visit. Meanwhile, in preparation of (hopefully) getting on the next day's flight, we needed to get new COVID tests and reregister using the Japanese Ministry of Health's app (name MySOS :-). There was a rapid test site with experience handing Japanese ministry formats a few terminals and $175 dollars away. We took our turns visiting the site, which turned out to be under tents between the parking structures and ongoing construction. After contemplating staying in the airport overnight, we finally agreed to book a hotel room near the airport to get some sleep, use the shower, and await the response from Tokamachi.

The next morning my borther-in-law calls. Because he is Nobue's brother, the Tokamachi office cannot provide him a copy of Nobue's family register. If it had been Marie' or me, there would have been no problem. Apparently a few years ago there were a couple of cases of siblings using the registers of other siblings for fraudulent purposes. This resulted in a law specifically prohibiting siblings from getting copies of the registries. Nobue would have to send a letter stamped with her HANKO giving him permission to do it (not sure if they would directly send a copy to Berkeley, but that's for later discussion). That document would not be available for this trip.

We went to JAL with what we had since we were there and, who knows, maybe they'll let us go (no one was very optimistic about this). Once again we get some very nice reps who take all the paperwork we have and go consult with the supervisors. After a few minutes, the supervisor returns, asks us a few questions about more documentation we don't have, and explains that we won't be able to get on the plane today. At a minimum they would need the Family Register, but even with that it would be maybe (which is never good in Japanese).

Time to head back to Berkeley. An uneventful Southwest flight to Oakland and a pickup by Marie's friend get us home. Marie' works with AA to see what can be done with the tickets we still have - looks like we'll be able to use them if we can do so within the calendar year. The plan is now to try to go two weeks around Thanksgiving, if our schedules all work out. Nobue is getting all the documentation that was missing, which is the same needed for a visa before hand, apparently. All the AirBnBs were cancelled, though the Tokyo one could not be refunded.

I'm convinced Japan doesn't want me visiting again :-). We'll see in 7 months or so.